1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to customizing webpages, and more particularly, to providing a theme builder for building multiple themes that are used for customizing the webpages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Webpage has evolved over the years. Current webpage integrates and renders a plurality of contents of varied forms and formats. A well designed webpage defines a user's taste and interest. The content, style and presentation of the webpage convey the standards of the designer. Most of the webpages designed by users use pre-defined templates and design tools. The customizations provided by these tools are mostly “provider-side” customizations. The pre-defined templates and design tools offer high resolution design options for the webpage and cover an array of themes. All the design elements, color schemes, fonts, background and other webpage elements are pre-defined. A user with no expertise or experience in designing can use any of the pre-defined templates when designing his/her webpage. However, these pre-defined templates and design tools provide very limited customization and very limited control on customization of the webpage. Some of the tools provide the ability to customize the content of the webpage but do not provide the ability to change the appearance and color scheme of the webpage. Some other tools provide the ability to change the look and feel of the webpage but do not provide the ability to save the changes for subsequent rendering.
When a user desires to change the look-and-feel of the webpage, he/she may use the limited options available within a predefined template or may have to manipulate the code that defines the webpage to include the desired changes. In the case where the user has to manipulate the code, the user has to be adept at manipulating the software code in order to perform the customization or engage a professional developer to perform the customization. This type of customization is time consuming and costly.
In addition to provider-side customization tools, some other tools provide client-side customization. The tools for client-side customization provide limited control in changing the content as well as the look-and-feel of the webpage and the changes are rendered on the webpage as one or more features are being changed. However, these changes are temporary as the client-side tools do not provide the ability to save customized features for subsequent rendering. Additionally, both the provider-side and the client-side customization tools do not provide the option of defining multiple customization schemes for a webpage. Defining different customization schemes for different occasions or scenarios and providing the ability to save the customization of the webpage for subsequent retrievals provides greater control and flexibility to the user thereby enriching the user's web experience.
The conventional provider-side and client-side customization tools do not provide the ability to share, import, or export the customization. In some instances, the changes are stored locally at the client in a local buffer that is session specific and are deleted when the user quits the session. Due to such restraints, the conventional customization tools are impractical.
It is in this context that the embodiments of the invention arise.